I lovingly refer to day three of our Cotswold Way hike as ‘the day the weather gave up’.

Unlike Saturday and Sunday, when the weather forecast suggested showers, but we managed to miss them completely, there would be no getting away with it today. The first line in my journal that evening was… “today was a very wet day – but it could have been worse”. Yea, that’s going to be a theme of this post, for sure.

After two reasonably big days, and with bigger days still to come, our task on Monday was to walk the 13-miles from Leckhampton Hill to Painswick. A short day, in comparison, but given that we were going to deal with persistent rain for the most part, it was not a bad day to walk fewer miles.

Our route would begin where we left off at Hartley Lane, and take us to Crickley Hill, Birdlip Hill, Witcombe Wood, Cooper’s Hill (including Cooper’s Hill Wood and Brockworth Wood), Painswick Beacon, and into Painswick.

Like the First Day

Despite the fact that we’d already hiked for two days, and clocked up over 35-miles, today really did feel like the first day of our Cotswold Way hiking adventure. Being based at home so far meant my mind hadn’t yet adjusted to the multi-day hiking life. It was genuinely as if I’d just had a great weekend outdoors – which, I’m very happy to say, is not unusual.

However, this time we were leaving the house – in an actual taxi because my husband had to go to work – and wouldn’t be returning until the end of the week.

This feeling of it being the first day was compounded by the fact I was carrying my larger, heavier pack, rather than the little day pack I’d been using over the weekend. You already know I was a bit nervous at the weight of it, just hoping that it would sit as well on my back as it did for the Coast to Coast, and all the bag-carrying-worries would melt away into nothing once we got going.

In reality, I had absolutely no choice in the matter now. Once I’d locked my front door and got in that taxi, I was committed to carrying the pack and everything I’d put in it all the way to Bath. Whether my mind thought it was day three or day one made no difference to that fact!!

Cotswold Way Day 3

Monday, Leckhampton Hill to Painswick, 13 miles

We really did have a leisurely start to our Monday. As we had a shorter day, mileage wise, and to avoid the commuter and school traffic across Cheltenham, we’d booked our taxi for 9am. Because I’m a creature of habit I got up at my usual time and had plenty of time to do a random selection of last-minute things at home. While Fiona used the extra hour to pop to the supermarket for extra blister plasters to make sure she was fully ready for the miles ahead.

Our taxi was right on time, which was the very moment I made the decision to leave my walking poles at home. Having not needed them for the two previous days, I decided they would just be a cumbersome extra I didn’t need to carry, hoping that I wouldn’t regret that in the form of a nasty fall down a hill at any point over the next four days.

Once back at the car park, and with our bootlaces tied and our packs on our back, we continued our way along the Cotswold Way, first heading past National Star College.

The Rain Begins

This local landmark is a provider of specialist further education and training for people with physical and learning disabilities and acquired brain injuries. And it’s a place which is close to my heart – some friends of mine run a music school here each summer, and I stopped in one of their camping pods midway around my Cheltenham circular walk.

I really should come and try out the apparently excellent café sometime, but we didn’t need a stop after just a mile or two. So, we walked on by, crossed the road, and headed up the lane, into the (very muddy underfoot) plantation, and over to Crickley Hill.  

There was another potential but unneeded café stop on Crickley Hill. There’s no trig pillar here, but the views from the country park are worth making sure you head all the way to the pointy tip of the hill rather than taking the easy shortcut across the top.

This is where the rain that was to mar the rest of our Monday started. The waterproof jackets went on, but for some reason I didn’t follow Fiona’s lead, leaving my waterproof trousers and pack cover inside my bag. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking – the Met Office and the sky around me both agreed this rain was not going to stop anytime soon; clearly feeling brave!

Crossing the Air Balloon

With rain falling, we walked down through the nature reserve, and came face to face with the Air Balloon roundabout – the busiest road crossing of the Cotswold Way. Those hiking this route in a couple of years’ time will benefit from a new bridge here as part of the A417 Missing Link developments. But for now, it’s a case of taking your chances crossing four lanes of traffic – thankfully with an island halfway across.

It took a while to cross, but eventually it was two kind lorry drivers who took a moment of pause in their busy day to let two slightly damp hikers make their way safely across the road. Thanks, gents, that was very much appreciated.

I did give in when we reached a bus shelter on the side of the A417 and put my waterproof over trousers on. It was a bit of a palaver; I had to buy a new pair for this trip as my Berghaus Deluge trousers no longer fit my thighs and butt. After ordering a mid-priced pair which had the most ridiculous fit of any item of clothing I’ve ever tried on, I went to Decathlon a few days before starting the hike and bought a cheap pair for £15.

Sweet Smelling Woodland

Anyway, the new cheap pair did the job, but were a little harder to get on over my damp hiking boots than I’d anticipated. I knew they didn’t have the long zips that my old pair had, but I had tried them at home successfully; they were so much more compliant when I was completely dry, sat down, and in the comfort of my bedroom!! I ended up wrestling with them a bit – people driving past must have thought I was being a right weirdo! You’ll be pleased to know, I did eventually get them on without ripping them, having made a very important note to myself to not wait until I’m already wet before putting them on next time!

We walked along the Cotswold escarpment at Birdlip Hill and into woodland. The tree canopy was to be our home for most of the rest of the day, which suited me just fine, I love walking in woodland. Thankfully this meant the persistent heavy rain falling would have much less of an effect on us than it might have done if we’d have been a day later in our walking. I really wouldn’t have wanted to be walking across Cleeve Hill in this weather!

It was all really beautiful. Thick with trees and vegetation, wide and easy to walk-on paths for the most part, Cotswold Way signposts at every possible junction, with occasional glimpses of moody views across the valley. The rain made the place smell amazing; the garlic was especially strong and the petrichor filled the air. It was a bit up and down – in fact, very up and down – but we made good progress through Witcombe Wood and I felt good.

No Cheese in Sight

By the time we reached Cooper’s Hill Wood and Cooper’s Hill itself, the rain had gotten heavier and the terrain tougher. We played a bit of ‘footpath or river’ in places, and there were even laminated signs saying ‘yes we know it’s terrible here’.

The Cotswold Way took us along the bottom of the famous Cheese Rolling hill – I admit I was surprised to look left up the hill rather than right down it, as I thought we would be seeing it from above. Naturally, we then walked around the corner and were faced with the very steep ascent to get to the top of it. Short but very sharp!

There is a solitary bench at the top of Cooper’s Hill which is completely open to the elements as there’s a break in the tree canopy here. Despite the heavy rain, we made this our lunch spot. There is something both completely pathetic and very empowering about eating (slightly soggy) sandwiches in the pouring rain.

It might have been a short and very wet lunch break, but I’m glad we spent a few minutes stationary; 13-miles might have been a short day compared to the rest on our Cotswold Way adventure, but it was still a distance that required some rest!

Hard Work

After a long enough lunchbreak to not get indigestion, but short enough so the sandwiches and mini cheddars didn’t get too soggy, we continued on our way. Our aim, now, was to just get the last four miles of the day done – fast. Fiona had spoken with the owner of our B&B in Painswick the previous afternoon, who had given us the keycode to get in before the usual check in time, which meant we had the freedom to arrive any time in the afternoon.

It was hard work; Brockworth Wood, Upton Wood and Rough Park were all incredibly muddy, and the fact that we had to keep our heads down to watch our footing all the time made what should have been a beautiful woodland walk a bit samey. This was a real shame, I will have to head back and walk this section again some time in better weather, as I’m sure it should have been much more enjoyable than it was.

The Trudge into Painswick

We did eventually get out of the woodland, crossing the A46 before landing up on Painswick golf course. We lost the Cotswold Way signage a bit here, one of the only times in the week we did. Thankfully, it didn’t matter as the three footpath options all headed in just about the same direction – over to Painswick Beacon. And there was no-one around to notice our correction!

The trig pillar at Painswick Beacon (283m above sea level), is a slight detour off the main route, which I would highly recommend to anyone hiking the Cotswold Way. But given that it was so very wet, the view was non-existent, and we’d both bagged this one previously, we bypassed it this time.

The last mile went on forever – why is that always the case when it’s wet?! I remember the last mile into Kinlochleven on the West Highland Way was the same, as was the last mile into Osmotherley on our Coast to Coast walk – both wet bits of those particular hikes.

St Anne’s B&B, Painswick

We did eventually walk past the quarry and the rest of the golf course, and down into Painswick. It’s fair to say that we were both very pleased reach our chosen lodgings for the night – St Anne’s B&B in Painswick. We were soaked, both of our Gore-Tex waterproof jackets wetting out in the last half an hour or so. So not only did we arrive dripping wet, but also really quite cold. Lovely.

Thankfully, St Anne’s is a muddy-boots friendly B&B, with an entrance way that doubles as a boot room – complete with a sink to rinse things off, and a radiator which meant our coats would be dry by morning. Our room was nice, with two comfortable single beds, a bit of storage space, a kettle, and an ensuite shower room.

We walked down to The Falcon for dinner, where I filled up with chicken and ham pie with wild garlic mash and spring greens. It was really tasty, definitely hitting the spot on such a wet day, but it was a tad pricey at £19. There was key lime pie on the dessert menu, but I didn’t give into temptation, opting instead for the curly wurly I had in my bag back at the B&B.

We briefly chatted to the couple we’d met at Chipping Campden on Saturday morning (read my day one post). They’d also found the wet day demoralising; I’m glad it wasn’t just us.

Reflections on Cotswold Way Day 3

I have to admit when I wrote my journal that evening – which I did before we headed out to dinner – I was feeling a bit miserable. My mood is so very linked to the weather, and while I tried very hard to keep positive, my coat wetting through at the end of the day really did knock the last bit of happy out of me.

I maintain that it could have been worse – if we were going to have to have a very wet day then the shortest of the hike, and one which was predominantly in woodland, was probably the one I’d choose. But even so, the rain had been relentless, and I was as done at the end of these 13-miles as I would normally be at the end of 20.

The rain, then, has to be my lowlight of day three of the Cotswold Way. Actually, not the rain, but rather the persistent nature of the rain which just kept on at us. It was energy sapping and made the day much less enjoyable than it ought to have been. It also meant we missed out a short detour to bag that trig pillar on Painswick Beacon – it just made us want to be indoors!

Highlights

There were still good times during the day, though, and I noted two highlights in my journal that evening. The first is the memory of the smell in Witcombe Wood. The rain, which hadn’t quite saturated me by that point, really brought out the aroma of wild garlic and the dense woodland, and was utterly wonderful.

The second, was – weirdly – sitting on that solitary bench at the top of Cooper’s Hill, eating my sandwiches in the pouring rain. It was just one of those slightly ridiculous moments in an adventure when we could do nothing but give in and laugh. We had to eat, we’d been walking for nine miles and needed a break.

My pre-hike research (read my day zero post) had told me there was no cafes between Crickley Hill and Painswick, so we’d carried our sandwiches from home – we just needed a spot to eat them. This seemed like the only bench available, and it wasn’t in the shelter of the woodland. The photo Fiona took is one of my favourites from the whole Cotswold Way hike, doing a good job capturing the misery and the smile in the situation.

Doing Okay

I did note in my journal that evening, though, that after three days out I was feeling good hiking wise. My bag was heavy but comfortable to carry, my feet were tired but not sore, I drank much more water with my bladder in, and my body felt like it was settling into the hike nicely.

There was a bit of regret over leaving my walking poles at home that morning. They would have made the games of footpath or river much easier to play, but I managed fine without them. And as we wandered down to the pub for dinner, I wished I had packed my puffy coat, but again, I managed okay.

Interestingly, after leaving Birdlip Hill where there were a few people enjoying the rainy view, we saw just one fell runner and one hiker for the rest of the day. It seemed no-one else was out on that particular Monday – it’s only long-distance hikers on a schedule that are silly enough to battle the Great British springtime weather!

If you have any questions about the Cotswold Way please do let me know.